iOnsite Gallery (OCAD University)Entertainment District, Downtown
Michael Massie: now and then
Career survey of Inuk silversmith and sculptor Michael Massie: iconic teapots, unexhibited pieces and new large-scale installations full of joy and humour.
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In 1992 Michael Massie's work ran in Inuit Art Quarterly and set off an argument, lasting several years, over whether it was "real" Inuit art. He had started making teapots the year before, as a tribute to his grandmother, and has made more than a hundred since without repeating a design.
You start with a large group of those teapots, some standing in as pieces on a chess board. Then come drawings from 2024, when an overuse injury made silver hard to work, including one titled 17 tea pots, not made… yet. Last are sculptures from 2025 in new materials, about food scarcity in the North and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
No critic has reviewed it yet, so come for the work itself if Inuit art or fine metalwork is your thing. Entry is free, and Onsite stays open until 7 p.m. on Wednesdays. Massie talks with curator Alysa Procida in the gallery on 28 October, 5 to 6:30 p.m. (free, register ahead).
Look for
1771, the chess set
Look for a board of bloodwood and wavy birch, about 84 cm square, where Massie's teapots act as pieces and replay contact between Inuit and Moravian missionaries.
“pop” art in suspension
An oval panel pieced from cut-up Pepsi cans, edged in copper and laced with string into a frame of rough wooden poles, made as a comment on food scarcity in the North.
17 tea pots, not made… yet
A 2024 work on paper laying out studies for new, fantastical teapots that don't exist yet.
many hands make light work
A new piece that takes a bow drill apart and sets its pieces beside key images from Massie's career.
Good for
- Cheap Culture
- Evening Visits
- Nerding Out
Also at Onsite Gallery (OCAD University)
On now nearby
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Image credits
8
- Michael Massie: now and thenCourtesy of Fehely Fine Arts, photo by Renzo Fernandez
- body — mind — distanceCourtesy of Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography
- From the Laurentian Highlands to a Higher PlaceCourtesy of Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography
- Static and NoiseCourtesy of Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography
- Campbell House MuseumJK Liu / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary PhotographyEWilson (Volunteer), Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- Art Gallery of OntarioOwen Byrne / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- Textile Museum of CanadaRaysonho @ Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0